The photo I have taken (with the cellphone: one does not carry a camera into church, but my cellphone does have a Bible study app on it) after Church. The fog was in the hills, and as we went off for a walk most people were finishing their coffee and heading to the hills, or perhaps to church themselves. Longtime readers know that the congregation I go to meets in a (now defunct) borough town hall. We are about to demolish our main building, which was built about 90 years ago, because upgrading it to modern earthquake standards, which is now mandatory for all public buildings, will cost somewhere in six figures, and making a modern multipurpose hall is cheaper. We have sold our parish’s historic, landmark church, and that gives us some ability to modernize.
This is not persecution of the church. My employer is facing a bill of some millions over the next decade as it upgrades or rebuilds every building they have: part of the expense is that the university has historic buildings.
Looking at today’s reading, one of the things that warmed up those who Stephen was preaching to is that he subverted the temple and the cult of the temple. He said that the building — the great project of Herod, just completed — was immaterial. That the tabernacle sufficed, and God needed neither. The temple was for us, and the temple was and is but a phase.
And then he wound them up, in the prayer that one of them would repent. None did, then.
Instead the listeners, the very council and senate, the most learned scholars of the time, became a mob.
“Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
“‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,
or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
The Stoning of Stephen
Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Saul Ravages the Church
And Saul approved of his execution.
And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
(Acts 7:44-8:1 ESV)
Now, the first application of this has to be to not put too much effort into one’s buildings. Even though I like architecture, photograph it all the time, and seek both visual and aural beauty, I know these things can be destroyed. Music used to be ephemeral before the phonograph: most ancient churches have been built and rebuilt. The people of God make a church: the building is but a tool.
The second application takes me back a couple of days. When opposed, we need to speak boldly, holding our very lives as of little account.
The final point is simple. We will be persecuted. For if we love, we will be bold. We will tell the truth: even when it hurts us, even when we know it will cause alienation, because lies are lethal. And we will then have to live with the consequences.
Oh, it hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. It hurts when your beloved is indifferent toward or hates you. But think of how Christ feels, and then realize that YOU are the one who callously and maliciously refuses to return His love with every sin and every ingratitude. Then realize that He still burns with unquenchable love for you, and use that realization to turn around and love others without requiring or demanding reciprocity.
He told us. Repeatedly. He told us that we would be hated by the world. He told us that we would be persecuted, both in macro contexts and in little ways in our individual day-to-day lives. And then He showed us by dying for us at our own hand, never for a second depriving any of us of our freedom to choose our own actions or whether or not to love Him. Only tyrants demand reciprocal “love”, which is no love at all, and is at its core, extremely cowardly and selfish. Be brave. Love. Ferociously. And when your love is not reciprocated, persevere, love more.
Pain is weakness leaving the body. Pain occurs when we push ourselves. The cost of improvement is pain, for this world is fallen. We may not be called to martyrdom today, but we are called today to share in Christ’s suffering. For our temple is not of this world.
